2010 6Sight Conference

2010 6Sight Conference is expected to start on Nov. 15 in San Jose with Microsoft, Silicon Hive, Scalado, Invisage, Nocturnal Vision and others updating on their work. 6Sight also attached its nice CTIA 2010 presentation to the conference home page. Few slides from the presentation:

I would prefer log scale on this graph

Mobile imaging resolution forecast

Quantum Film is predicted to be the future after BSI

Imaging Executive Podcasts

I've just discovered Imaging Exectutive Podcast site having many interesting talks, including ones from Sony, Marc Levoy from Stanford University, Invisage and others. The new podcasts appear once a week and might be a good time killer while commuting to/from work.

The most recent podcast has an interview with Jess Lee, CEO of Invisage. Jess promises to deliver first sensor samples for mobile phone customers in few months and start production in 12 months from now. The sensor price is said to be competitive with FSI sensors and very competitive with BSI ones.

PTC Article Discusses Temporal Noises under Illumination

Albert Theuwissen PTC Series goes on. The latest post talks about temporal noises with light on the sensor and its effects on PTC.

Natural Lightguide Reduces Chromatic Aberrations

SPIE article shows how human eye uses one of the recent developments in FSI pixels, the lightguide, to reduce its sensitivity to chromatic aberrations.

Via electronsholes.

Aptina Demos Wafer Level Camera Technology

In this Youtube video Aptina demonstrates its wafer level camera technology at Electronica 2010 in Munich, Germany:

Primesensor Shows Sales and Profits

Digitimes: PrimeSensor Technology, a joint venture of Pixart and UMC, has posted revenues of about $14.6M in the first three quarters of 2010. PrimeSensor also posted net profits of over $330K with a gross margin of 10-11% during the January-September period.

Its mother company Pixart saw third-quarter 2010 revenues decline 17.7% sequentially. Pixart's fourth-quarter revenues could see another 30% sequential decrease, according to company chairman Huang Sen-huang. Pixart's gross margin is expected to slide to 42-43% in the fourth quarter due to declining shipments of high-margin gaming products, and the appreciation of the NT dollar.

Hynix Presents Its CIS Lineup

Hynix published CIS information page including TSR market prediction and its 1.75um and 1.4um product tables. This is the first time I see Hyix 1.4um sensors being mentioned:

Omnivision Launches 8MP 1.4um BSI Pixel Sensor Targeted to Smartphones

PR Newswire: Omnivision introduced the OV8820, a 1/3.2-inch 8MP RAW CMOS image sensor based on OmniVision's proven 1.4um OmniBSI pixel. The sensor delivers 1080p/30fps and 720p/60fps HD video with electronic image stabilization (EIS) and horizontal FOV designed specifically to meet the demands of smart phone markets (new Apple iPhone?).

In full 8M (3264 x 2448) resolution, the OV8820 operates at 24fps in a 4:3 format and in 6MP (3264 x 1836) resolution at 30fps in a 16:9 format. A high-speed, 4-lane MIPI interface facilitates the required high data transfer rate.

One of the features of the OV8820 is an integrated scaler, which enables EIS and maintains full FOV with improved S/N performance in 1080p HD video mode operating at 30 fps. Another feature is a 2 x 2 binning functionality with a post-binning re-sampling filter function that minimizes spatial artifacts and removes image artifacts around edges.

The OV8820 has an on-chip VCM driver, temperature sensing, 256 bytes of OTP memory, lens shading correction and defect pixel correction. The OV8820 fits into the industry standard module size of 8.5 x 8.5 mm.

The OV8820 is available for sampling now and is expected to enter mass production in March 2011.

Industry research firm Yole Developpement is forecasting that 8MP sensors will hold over a third of the market share for camera phones by 2015.

Aptina Announces 1.2MP 115dB HDR Automotive Sensor

Business Wire: Aptina announced MT9M024 automotive image sensor. The 1.2MP, 1/3-inch optical format sensor features high DR of greater than 115dB, , 720p/60fps HD video, full motion compensation and DR-Pix technology that enhances the performance of the pixel in very low light conditions. Aptina DR-Pix technology combines two modes of operation in one pixel design – low conversion gain mode for large charge handling capacity in bright scenes and a high conversion gain mode with increased sensitivity and low read noise for low-light scenes.

The surround-view ready MT9M024 also targets automotive forward-facing solutions like lane departure warning (LDW) and traffic sign recognition (TSR).

The AEC-Q100 qualified sensor comes in a 9x9mm iBGA package that meets -40C to +105C operating temperatures. The sensor offers additional features such as on-chip AE, statistics engine, context switching, temperature sensor, parallel and serial outputs and auto black level calibration.

The MT9M024 is currently sampling and will be in production starting Q3 2011.

Himax Anticipates Explosive Sensor Sales Growth

Himax reported its Q3 2010 results. Jordan Wu, President and CEO of Himax, said “Revenues from CMOS image sensors and WLED drivers each experienced over 100% quarter-over-quarter growth in the third quarter. We expect both segments to carry the strong momentum into the fourth quarter and next year. Our new generation sensors, in particular, are very competitive in cost and performance and are being adopted by numerous handset, notebook and web camera customers. We anticipate an explosive growth for our sensor sales next year.”